Apple Podcasts Losing Market Share to YouTube and Spotify

[drmacnut]

BUT Apple should look back and realize they missed BIG in not purchasing Spotify and instead purchasing (I can't even remember the name).

I am super glad Apple did not buy Spotify and I pray it never does. The first thing that would happen is the app would get "dumbed down" to make it "easy to use" and we'd lose much of what we love about Spotify at this time.

Another thing that most likely would happen is that the Search feature would end up being rubbish. For some reason, Apple just can't seem to make really great search in many of their apps (in my experience). In macOS Music.app for example, searching in iTunes (1) limits results to 99 per search for songs —so there is no way I can find artists, album, or song titles that don't show up in the first 99 results when sorted A>Z or Z>A; and (2) the album search view absolutely sucks —showing only album artwork blocks in seemingly random order and with no ability to either list or sort by any metadata. Argh. I could go on.

Anyway, 'nuf said. My point is, I pray Apple and Spotify continue to operate side by side, thus allowing us options for what we prefer to use.

 

[dominiongamma]

I use the podcast app daily. It works fine and it is free.

The app is an embarrassment honestly, feels very 90s , dated, and only works when it wants to.

 

[DogHouseDub]

Does Apple make any money from podcasts? Does the existence of the podcasts app sell any hardware?

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Does Apple make any money from podcasts? Does the existence of the podcasts app sell any hardware?

They take 30% of the podcast subscriptions that are offered through the app. Don't know how popular they are and none that I listen to offer it.

The Podcast app sells no hardware, at least not anymore. It did back in the click wheel iPod era, hence Podcast.

 

[gavin_]

This is such a weird, Apple-blogsphere conceit to pay attention to. The subtext is always that somehow this is important, that Apple should care more, than people should "want" to use the Apple option, because Apple.

The reality is always more complicated as people will base their choices on a host of factors, not just some spooky brand fealty. Only here in the bubble is that somehow the outlier idea.

dude, you understand that you're posting this on a website dedicated to Apple products?

 

[MacKid]

"Losing market share" except YouTube and Spotify make money from serving podcasts and Apple doesn't. So, no surprise the charity service loses out to the ad/subscriber platforms?

 

[WarmWinterHat]

"Losing market share" except YouTube and Spotify make money from serving podcasts and Apple doesn't. So, no surprise the charity service loses out to the ad/subscriber platforms?

Apple doesn't serve the podcasts, they just offer the link in the app to the feed. The actual downloads don't come from Apple.

They do make some money from ad-free subscriptions within the app, but probably not much.

 

[ipedro]

Bring this back. It was actually fun and relaxing to watch the reel to reel while listening to a podcast.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Bring this back. It was actually fun and relaxing to watch the reel to reel while listening to a podcast.

View attachment 2408677

That design made me quit using the Apple Podcast app. I didn't come back until about a year ago.

I own a reel-to-reel and it's a PITA. Don't need to be reminded of it.

 

[Rayansb]

Apple is the one who has been neglecting its own app. I have always found the use of this app to be confusing.

 

[turbineseaplane]

They recently gained me ... from Overcast

 

[stiligFox]

Part of it for me is how convoluted they made the Podcasts app over the last few years. I used to listen to CarTalk all the time back in my iPod classic and even up until about iOS 7 on my iOS devices.

How getting podcasts feels like a chore - you can see a few on a screen at a time and sorting through them feels needlessly cluttered. Downloading, sorting by newest or oldest, how many to keep, when to delete. It used to be a clean simple list of episode titles.

Like I don’t need to see the entire description of each episode.

I dunno - it’s just for me it’s gotten too messy. But maybe it’s better for others.

 

[Lucca2]

YouTube and Spotify have a lot of free content. Apple Music not so much

 

[bunce66]

The Spotify Podcast function is a disaster and it ruins your music experience. If you want to listen to music, you lose your place in the podcast. They really should be separated into 2 separate Apps.

YouTube is decent for listening, especially if you are able to download stuff and listen on the go, it is great.

The podcast app is not bad really and I think it's solid. However, I've always wondered why Apple doesn't allow video podcasts. They could steal some market share from Youtube, since many YouTube creators would then post their videos on there.

Another thing they should do is allow comments on podcasts.

 

[cocky jeremy]

It is now very hard to get it to play the latest podcast. It starts out in the middle somewhere, and relentlessly fills your limited screen space with useless graphics so that only one or two titles are visible, and it takes forever to figure out if you are at the top of the list or not.

What's a better option? I've legit never even tried other apps.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

The podcast app is not bad really and I think it's solid. However, I've always wondered why Apple doesn't allow video podcasts. They could steal some market share from Youtube, since many YouTube creators would then post their videos on there.

The podcasts app back in iOS 5 allowed videos.

 

[deathcab]

Can't understand for the life of me why they continue to maintain podcasts separately from the Apple Music app.

Putting those together like Spotify does would make it much easier to upsell non-subscribers since they'd already be in the Apple Music app for podcasts, and would also increase podcast consumption (pushing ad revenue and reducing music consumption / royalties) by paid Apple Music subscribers.

 

[ssspinball]

The report makes no sense? The word “podcast” implies audio.

A YouTube VIDEO channel is not a podcast. You can have both a video and a podcast, but they aren’t the same thing.

It’s like saying YouTube is stealing from paper newspapers. Uh, no it isn’t? They are different mediums.

 

[Siliconguy]

I don’t think I have ever opened it. Just don’t personally see the allure of podcasts.

Agreed. I can read far faster, plus just skim over the friendly blather to get to the point. If they do say something important I have to stop what I'm doing to focus on the talking anyway.

 

[Rychiar]

As others have mentioned isnt the point of a podcast that is audio, so you can do other things while listening? Never saw the appeal of watching people talk to each other when their words are the only important thing.

Mainly cus they show and comment on videoclips quite often which is the one thing that annoys me about Apple Podcasts is if I’m listening there I can’t see what they’re talking about

 

[headlessmike]

However, I've always wondered why Apple doesn't allow video podcasts. They could steal some market share from Youtube, since many YouTube creators would then post their videos on there.

The podcasts app back in iOS 5 allowed videos.

It still does:

A YouTube channel I support on Patreon even offers it’s full library as a podcast feed for patrons, a perfect way to watch add-free and offline while still supporting the creator.

 

[davide_eu]

Again, it's Apple telling me what I want to listen to.

Are you surprised?

 

[MacBookPro88]

I use Spotify. I have never used Apple Podcasts.

 

[hooptyuber]

Sadly, Apple has become remarkably inept at developing and revising software and apps. We still don't have a Mac or Apple TV version of Apple Classical. How hard could it be to code those?

 

[CrownSeven]

Maybe apple should just ban youtube and spotify from iOS? Am I right? Less choice is what we want no? I mean based on this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-app-store-photos-messages-and-more.2434165/ that is what we want.